thank you for joining us. we hope we got you at the top of the hour. >> thank you, tamron. >> what are your thoughts on the notion there's a dpeel in sight. it's a question of whether you have the bush tax cuts separate and deal with the other issues of entitlement and the fiscal issues the president wants to address as far as the debt ceiling later? >> i'm very optimistic, tamron. i think the parties are talking and there's a lot of shuffles back and forth between the white house and congress. there are republican and democratic caucuses to deal with, but i see problem. the talks haven't broken down. this isn't a middle east standoff in any way. we actually have momentum. there are specific proposals on the website by the president. there have been proposals on the republican side. they're continuing to talk. i think it's all positive. >> where do you see progress specifically? we don't know the details of the conversation yesterday, but where do you see progress? >> what i really like about the president's a